Hawaiian Telcom hits record for TV subscriber sign-ups in quarter

Hawaiian Telcom signed up a record 2,800 television subscribers in the second quarter as it continued to make inroads into rival Oceanic Time Warner's commanding market share.

The state's largest phone company said in its midnight Monday earnings release that it now has 23,100 subscribers for Hawaiian Telcom TV, resulting in penetration of 16.3 percent of households "enabled."

About 142,000 homes on Oahu have been "enabled" to receive the TV service as a result of Hawaiian Telcom's effort to expand its fiber-optic network on Oahu. Once a neighborhood is enabled, Hawaiian Telcom, which launched the TV service in mid-2011, begins to offer the TV service to residents in that area.

HawTel's net income fell 43.3 percent to $2.2 million, or 20 cents a share, from $4 million, or 36 cents a share, in the year-earlier period when there were one-time items that affected earnings. Those items included a $6.5 million gain from the sale of property and a $3.7 million loss for the early retirement of debt.

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onlyalohawrote:

Competition is good!

on August 4,2014 | 01:54AM

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inlanikaiwrote:

Amen! About time, too.

on August 4,2014 | 07:02AM

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twitter6wrote:

Amen. If Tel Com wants to gain significant market share they need to get local sports

on August 4,2014 | 01:21PM

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Shotzywrote:

Please hurry and get those fiber optic cables in the Makiki area. I am so sick of Time Warner Cable and and their monopoly. Dish and Direct TV are not an option where I am.

on August 4,2014 | 06:22AM

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awahanawrote:

Please remember, this is just a HawTel earnings press release that SA is reporting that you are reading. Its one sided.

Be careful what you wish for.

I install and setup HDTV and WiFi for many, and many DO NOT prefer HawTel. After they fall for their canvasser showing up at their door, knocking, and saying that its month to month, no contract, to try it out (but there is a HUGE cancellation fee in the fine print). Or receiving their promotional flyer in the mail, announcing they've come to your neighborhood and you get sucked in by going to their web site and placing an order to switch.

I have people who hated their slow and unreliable HawTel fiber optic service, and cancelled and went back to TWC, and then got a 4 figure bill $ in the mail, and they don't even bother coming back to get their 3 giant, ugly fiber optic equipment boxes attached to the wall behind your TVs, because they don't want it back! They just want to bill you for it, and you can have it! They threaten to send you to bill collectors and ruin your credit, as you agreed and had signed the contract without reading it.

TWC gave her the text to post. They hate the competition. Just like HECO.

on August 4,2014 | 12:32PM

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bnc_connectionwrote:

I haven't had a problem with my cable service or with customer service. I live close to a central office, so I was able to switch a long time ago. I do not regret switching from Oceanic to Hawaiian Telcom.

on August 4,2014 | 11:38AM

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localguywrote:

awahana - Just posting what TWC gave them. Failing to say TWC only earned 2 stars, 112 complaints can't be wrong!! We do know people with a grudge will go to Yelp and complain, just another disgruntled person. Fact is many people have never had a problem with either service. And there are people who no matter what a company does, are not satisfied. Born to whine. Easy to tell Rookie Posters like awahana. Never give both sides. Not to mention working for TWC.

on August 4,2014 | 12:40PM

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dyw001wrote:

This was not my experience with HITEL. I switched from TWC and never looked back. Their customer is much better now, than maybe 3 years ago. Cable is as good or in certain cases better. Plus it's much cheaper.

on August 4,2014 | 03:25PM

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mauidaywrote:

Aloha Awahana. Thank you for your post. I have no connection to HTC or OTWC. I have used both in the past. Just sharing my direct experience so others may make a more informed decision. I personally don't care which company others sign up for. That is their decision. But I rely on reviewers feed back to make wise decisions so I am passing on my experience. (Just returning the favor.) I had OTWC internet, but changed over to HTC based on their ad for cheaper rates. I had a signed up for business internet service. I rely on the internet a lot for my business. One day my internet went down. I tried calling tech support and repeatedly could not get through. Finally I just stayed on the phone and waited. It took about a 20 minute wait before speaking to alive person. Long story short. They told me it would take week before someone could get out to look into my problem. So my business suffered without internet for a week, costing my a lot of money in lost business, lost communication, extra office work, etc. I dropped HTC and resigned with OTWC. HTC charged me with breaking the contract and charged me a couple hundred. I refused to pay. I sent letters of complaint to the FCC, FTC, State utilities commission, BBB etc. Like Awahana reported, HTC send me to the collectors to ruin my credit. So bottom line people, up to you who you want to sign up with, but I would advise you to have HTC sign a "prenup" with YOU in case they fail in providing the service or give good customer service, you have a way out. Hope you don't have to go through what I did.

on August 4,2014 | 09:35PM

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Jerry_Dwrote:

Would be nice if you guys come out to Ma'ili! Kinda getting tired of being screwed over by the TWC monopoly.

on August 4,2014 | 06:49AM

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DanLBoomwrote:

Now only if Hawaiian Telcom can improve on it's Customer service and bring back the
Phone Mart... Oceanic is getting quite expensive and climbing.
Yes! competition is GOOD. Imua

on August 4,2014 | 07:03AM

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Bullywrote:

Competition is good but Hawaiian Tel maybe just as bad as TWC.

on August 4,2014 | 08:22AM

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CriticalReaderwrote:

Cable Television needs to be regulated as a public utility.

on August 4,2014 | 09:58AM

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KaneoheSJwrote:

Awahana, is one an employee of TWC? One stated 1 1/2 stars for Hawaiian Telcom but fail to mention that TWC has a 2 stars out of five rating. One's slanted review fails to mention all the negative reviews for TWC which can be found HERE. Further one should also state that it is 1 1/2 out of 5 stars for Hawaiian Telcom and 2 out of 5 stars for TWC if one is going to present stats. Although I am not a fan of Yelp as although they claim that they do not get paid by businesses to remove reviews, they actually filter out reviews. And I have found that one can place a negative review on a business but if one places a negative review on another business it gets filtered out. So technically they are not "removing" negative reviews there. Instead they are filtering out negative reviews for certain businesses so that they do not even have to "remove" them in the first place. And the account holder is shown the negative review as if it is actually being used. But when a friend with an account checks one's review it shows that it has been filtered out. Regardless, it is the responsibility of the consumer to check if there are any penalties for cancelling a service. Many cell phone and satellite services do have fees for early cancellation. It's just part of the business due to the costs incurred when a consumer cancels early. They have to recoup the costs of installation and the hardware. Yes, there are consumers that cancel at a whim. And if one clicks on the link that I have provided in red, one will notice that TWC has a lot of complaints regarding their service. Personally, I have many friends who have cancelled their TWC accounts due to the high costs and the service. One of them cancelled only their premium movie channels as they raised their rates. And then later he came to find that he was still paying almost the same amount without the premium movie channels. Both service providers have their positives and negatives. I also do have friends that have Hawaiian Telcom that have cancelled their phone services due to their service and the fact that their cell phone service provided all the phone that they needed. I do notice that TWC has returned their customer service to Hawaii rather than utilizing offshore services. But still, their costs are ridiculous. If Hawaiian Telcom does come to my neighborhood, I will make the switch as I already have their phone service which I find to be, for the most part, reliable. TWC's broadband service, on the other hand, can sometimes go in and out or become slow especially during high winds and at certain times when everyone comes home and logs on. So again, I ask one, does one work for TWC? I think the record turnout is telling.

on August 4,2014 | 10:15AM

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KWAYwrote:

So if awahana is a oceanic employee, you gotta wonder how many of these posters are Hawn tel employees? probably 3 of evry 5. Every service provider has it's warts, hawn telcom will inevitably reveal theirs, you can count on it. The good thing is the competition forces all of them to clean up their act to stay competitive.

on August 4,2014 | 12:57PM

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dontbelieveinmythswrote:

Read the article in the upcoming Money magazine re cable. Streaming is the future. Only need internet provider and you can watch almost anything through the internet.